With the advent of widespread use of computers, it has become quite common, and often necessary, to transfer data between computers. This is particularly true when it is necessary to transfer information between remote facilities, each facility having its own host computer. Such remotely located computers can communicate with one another using modems connected to telephone system, or alternatively, to dedicated leased telephone lines.
Typically, in order to effect remote communication, it is necessary for an operator to be located at each host computer. In this situation, one of the operators must initiate a computer conversation at one of the host computers, with the operator at the other computer being present in order to respond to such initiation.
Certain computer networks operate automatically wherein a conversation can be initiated with a remote, unmanned host computer. The procedure for initiating such a conversation typically involves accessing the remote host computer, as by directing a telephone call through respective modems, followed by a "log-on" procedure. Gaining access through the log-on procedure can be time consuming and render access more difficult. Once communication is established, the user must then interact with a program running in the remote host computer in order to achieve a desired result.
One example of such a system might be a computerized order entry system wherein order datasets stored at a remotely located order entry computer facility must be transmitted to a central office computer to fill such orders. Each such computer typically includes a processor, a permanent storage device, such as a disk drive, and an auxiliary or buffer storage. The transfer of datasets is generally done using a spooling operation at each computer. Particularly, in order to reduce processing delays and minimize transfer time, the program in the remote host computer is operable to transfer the dataset from the permanent storage device to the buffer storage device. The remote host computer can then access the dataset more quickly from the buffer storage and transmit it over a communication network to the central office host computer. In order to hasten the receiving of the information, the central office host computer initially stores the received dataset in its buffer memory and the spooling operation is used finally to transfer the data to the permanent storage device. While such a system affords certain benefits, the transfer time may still be unnecessarily long, as the system may be delayed until the time required to perform the spooling operation at each host computer.
The present invention is directed to overcome these and other problems associated with data transfer and management.